05.25.12 8:45 AM ET

Let’s admit it: most wine writing is pretty terrible, full of mixed metaphors, impossible pairings (does it really taste like toasted hazelnuts and grapefruit?), and written in a language that only other wine bores can hope to understand. Then there’s what Jay McInerney, famed author of Bright Lights, Big City and other fiction about the good life gone sour, has turned out for nearly two decades and over three books. His latest, The Juice, is an immensely pleasurable and literate splash into McInerney’s favorite glasses over the last decade. But truly, who wants to just read about wine when you can just drink it? So we invited McInerney to join us for a few bottles.